1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to television receivers and their control. The invention is addressed specifically to an enhancement of the utility of on-screen menus which can be improved with the addition of a P-I-P (picture-in-picture) display therewith.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In P-I-P displays, as known in the art, a small portion of the television-screen is blanked and a picture is superimposed over the blanked area. The P-I-P displays of the prior art generally receive their video signal from a tuner other than the main tuner of the television receiver which produces the main, or large display. The term P-I-P as used throughout is also meant to encompass "picture out of picture" (P-O-P) displays.
In many instances current television receiver operating parameters are set up for operation through the use of on-screen displays, or menus. For present purposes an on-screen display will be considered as a displayed television receiver operating parameter menu through which operation on a source-related or channel-related function is accomplished. The operating parameters that act on or switch between channels or input signal sources of the TV shall be referred to herein as source-related or channel-related functions. Such parameters may include: channel addition/deletion, channel labeling, and source labeling, as further explained below, or "parental control" channel blocking or the like. Other instances of menu operation for the TV may include the recently emerging "on-screen program guides" such as "STARSIGHT" (TM) which provide for control of channel selection and/or recording from a daily program grid, such as seen in FIG. 7.
Channel addition/deletion provides for the addition to, or deletion from, the list of selectable channels by means of an operator interface such as a remote control unit (RCU). By way of example, the user calls up on the television-screen a table of all the possible television channel numbers, for example in VHF and UHF, from 2 to 83. The table is scanned using adjustment keys on the RCU. By highlighting the channel number and depressing a selected switch on the RCU, the user can delete an undesired channel from the list of selectable channels. The deleted channel may be, for example, one that has a weak broadcast signal in the area, or it may be the channel for a station featuring a foreign language not understood by the viewer. The reduction of the number of selectable channels from a possible 82 to perhaps only 10 channels, for example, facilitates channel selection by means of channel up/down control as only the desired channels are then tuned in. If a channel becomes desired later, it can be added to the list of desired channels by the same process.
"Channel labeling" is a function which allows the television to display an indication of the source of the programming, for example, the sources shown in FIG. 5, along with, or instead of, the channel number.
"Source identification" is a function which allows the television to display an indication of the source of the video signal input to the video display circuitry, for example, the source identifiers listed in FIG. 6, along with, or instead of, the input jack designation through which the signal source is input to the television.
The convenience of the above-cited features may be vitiated by the fact that the viewer, after selecting a menu from which the channels or signal sources may be operated upon, may have to use the RCU to call up the television picture to ascertain the nature of that particular channel or source, after which the viewer must again revert to the menu function in order to operate upon the channel or signal source parameters. Further, the known menus of these channel or source related functions are sometimes troublesome because they are overlaid on an active channel, or main screen, display which is the regular television display intended to fill the whole television screen. The menu may thereby obscure portions of the main screen display. The main screen display also could provide a background which makes the menus hard to see, especially where the active channel signal is weak or blank, thereby causing an unstable picture.
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to enhance the utility of such menu driven channel or source related functions through use of the P-I-P display in a television receiver. It is another object of the invention to facilitate the addition or deletion of selectable broadcast channels from the television receiver, the labeling of channels, the identification of the source of the signals delivered to the television receiver, and the use of on-screen programming guides, all through the use of the P-I-P display.
Other attendant advantages will be more readily appreciated as the invention becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description and compared in connection with the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals designate like parts throughout the figures. It will be appreciated that the drawings may be exaggerated for explanatory purposes.